GIFT    OF 
EVGENE  MEYER, 


Abraham  Lincoln 


DISCOVERIES 
INVENTIONS 

A  LECTURE  BY 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

DELIVERED  IN 

1860 


SAN  FRANCISCO 
JOHN  HOWELL 


COPYRIGHT,  1915,  BY  JOHN  HOWELL 


A  PREFATORY  NOTE 

The  Lecture— "Discoveries  and  In 
ventions" —by  our  greatest  American , 
presents  a  phase  of  Lincoln  s  activity 
about  which  little  is  generally  known. 
It  shows  as  clearly  as  any  of  his  other 
writings  how  great  was  Lincoln's 
knowledge  of  the  progress  of  mankind, 
particularly  as  related  in  theBible,and 
it  reveals  also  his  debt  to  that  Book  of 
Books  for  inspiration  and  illustration, 
as  well  as  his  masterly  use  of  pure 
English,  largely  gained  through  that 
study. 

In  the  fateful  year  of  1860,  the  year 
of  his  election  to  the  presidency,  Lincoln 
took  up,  in  the  pause  of  his  affairs  after 
the  long  debate  with  Douglas,  the  cus 
tom  of  lyceum  lecturing,  then  in  great 


314598 


vogue.  This  lecture  on  "Discoveries  and 
Inventions"  was  delivered  in  towns 
near  his  home,  Springfield,  Illinois,  and 
in  Springfield  itself  on  Washington'' s 
birthday.  Five  days  later  Lincoln  made 
his  great  speech  at  Cooper  Union  in 
New  York. 

The  lecture  is  not  included  with  any 
collection  of  Lincoln  s  addresses.  It  ap 
pear  edin  print  for  the  first  time  in  Sun 
set  Magazine/^  /pop— the  centennial 
of  Lincoln"  s  birth. 

The  originalmanuscript,from  which 
this  edition,  the  first  in  book  form,  is 
made, was  a  cherished  possession  of  the 
late  Dr.  Samuel  Houston  Melvin,  of 
Oakland,  California,  formerly  a  resi 
dent  of  Springfield,  Illinois,  and  a 
friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  Just  prior  to 
Dr.  Melvin  s  death,  in  1898,  he  made 


an  affidavit  setting  forth  the  history 
of  the  manuscript;  that  statement  is  as 
follows: 

MEMORANDUM  OF 

CERTAIN  FACTS  FOR  INFORMATION  OF 
THOSE  WHO  FOLLOW  AFTER 

In  the  month  of  February -,  1861,  being  at  that 
time  a  resident  of  Springfield^  Illinois ',  I  called  one 
evening  at  the  residence  of  my  friend ^Dr.  John  T'odd. 
'The  doctor  was  an  uncle  of  Mrs.  Abraham  Lincoln. 
While  there  Mr.  Lincoln  came  in,  bringing  with 
him  a  well-filled  satchel  ^remarking  as  he  set  it  down 
that  it  contained  his  literary  bureau.  Mr.  Lincoln 
remained  some  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes ',  conversing 
mainly  about  the  details  of  his  prospective  trip  to 
Washington  the  following  week^  and  told  us  of  the 
arrangements  agreed  upon  for  the  family  to  follow 
him  a  few  days  later.  When  about  to  leave  he  hand 
ed  the  grip  above  referred  to  to  Mrs.  Grimsley^  the 
only  daughter  of  Dr.  Todd,  who  was  then  a  widow 
but  who  subsequently  became  the  wife  of  Rev.  Dr. 
John  H.  Brown.,  a  Presbyterian  minister  located  in 
Springfield^  remarking  as  he  did  so  that  he  would 
leave  the  bureau  in  her  charge;  that  if  he  ever  re 
turned  to  Springfield  he  would  claim  it,  but  if  not 
she  might  make  such  disposition  of  its  contents  as  she 
deemed  proper.  A  tone  of  indescribable  sadness  was 


noted  in  the  latter  part  of  the  sentence.  Lincoln  had 
shown  me  quite  a  number  of  letters  a  few  days  be 
fore^  threatening  his  life,  some  predicting  that  he 
never  would  be  inaugurated,  and  it  was  apparent 
to  me  that  they  were  making  an  impression  upon  his 
mind,  although  he  tried  to  laugh  the  matter  off. 
About  jive  years  later  the  Nation  was  startled  by 
the  announcement  of  Lincoln's  assassination.  'The 
corporation  of  Springfield  sele  tied  twelve  of  its  citi 
zens  to  proceed  at  once  to  Washington  and  accom 
pany  the  remains  of  the  dead  President  back  to  his 
old  home.  I  was  one  of  that  number ;  and  shall  never 
forget  the  indescribable  sadness  manifested  by  mil 
lions  of  mourners  along  the  route  of  travel  of  the 
funeral  cortege  as  it  wended  its  way  westward  over 
two  thousand  miles.  A  few  evenings  after  his  body 
was  laid  to  rest,  I  again  called  upon  my  neighbors, 
the  family  of  Dr.  Todd.  Scenes  and  incidents  con 
ned  ed  with  the  assassination  and  funeral  of  the  dead 
President  were  discussed,  and  the  remark  made  by 
Lincoln  on  his  last  visit  to  the  house  was  referred 
to  as  indicating  a  presentiment  that  he  would  not 
return  alive.  This  recalled  the  f aft  of  his  having 
left  his  so-called  literary  bureau,  and  his  injunction 
as  to  its  disposition.  Mrs.  Grimsley  brought  the  grip 
from  the  place  where  it  had  been  stored,  and  opened 
it  with  a  view  to  examining  its  contents.  Among 
them  was  found  this  manuscript,  and  attached  to  it 
by  means  of  a  piece  of  red  tape  was  another  of  like 
char  after.  They  proved  to  be  manuscripts  of  two 


lectures  which  he  had  prepared  and  delivered  with 
in  a  year  prior  to  his  election  to  the  presidency— one 
at  Jacksonville  ^Illinois  ^  and  a  few  days  later  at  De- 
catur,  Illinois;  the  other  a  little  later  at  Cook's  Hall, 
Springfield,  Illinois,  at  which  I  was  present.  Mrs. 
Grimsley  told  me  to  selett  from  the  contents  of  the 
bureau  any  one  of  the  manuscripts  it  contained-,  and 
supposing  at  that  time  that  the  two  manuscripts  be 
longed  to  the  same  lefture,  I  selected  them.  On  sub 
sequent  examination  I  discovered  that  while  they 
both  treated  upon  the  same  subject  (Inventions  and 
Discoveries)  they  were  separate  lectures,  twenty- 
five  years  later  I  disposed  of  one  of  the  manuscripts 
to  Mr.  Gunt her*  of  Chicago.  'The  other  it  is  my  hope 
and  desire  shall  remain  in  possession  of  my  family 
and  its  descendants. 

The  manuscript  is  now  owned  by  Dr. 
Melvin '  s  son^  the  Honor  able  Henry  A. 
Melvin,a  Justice  oftheSupremeCourt 
of  California  ^through  whose  courtesy 
this  edition  is  published. 


*This  cwas  published  in  ll  Addresses  and  Letters  of  Lincoln, "  The  Century 
Company,  1904. 


DISCOVERIES  AND  INVENTIONS 

A  LECTURE  BY 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

A  creation  is  a  mine,  and  every  man 
a  miner. 
The  whole  earth,  and  all  within 
it,  upon  it,  and  round  about  it,  in 
cluding  himself y  in  his  physical,  moral,  and 
intellectual  nature,  and  his  susceptibilities, 
are  the  infinitely  various  "leads"  from  which, 
man, from  the  first, was  to  dig  out  his  destiny. 

In  the  beginning,  the  mine  was  unopened, 
and  the  miner  stood  naked,  and  know  ledge  less, 
upon  it. 

Fishes,  birds,  beasts,  and  creeping  things, 
are  not  miners,  but  feeders  and  lodgers  merely. 
Beavers  build  houses;  but  they  build  them  in 
nowise  differently,  or  better  now,  than  they 
did,  five  thousand  years  ago.  Ants  and  honey 
bees  provide  food  for  winter;  but  just  in  the 
same  way  they  did,  when  Solomon  referred 
the  sluggard  to  them  as  patterns  of  prudence. 

Man  is  not  the  only  animal  who  labors; 
but  he  is  the  only  one  who  improves  his 
workmanship.  This  improvement  he  effects 


by  Discoveries  and  Inventions.  His  first  im 
portant  discovery  was  the  fad:  that  he  was 
naked ;  and  his  first  invention  was  the  fig-leaf 
apron.  This  simple  article,  the  apron,  made 
of  leaves,  seems  to  have  been  the  origin  of 
clothing — the  one  thing  for  which  nearly  half 
of  the  toil  and  care  of  the  human  race  has 
ever  since  been  expended.  The  most  impor 
tant  improvement  ever  made  in  connection 
with  clothing,  was  the  invention  of  spinning 
and  weaving.  The  spinning  jenny,  and  pow 
er  loom,  invented  in  modern  times,  though 
great  improvements,  do  not,  as  inventions,  rank 
with  the  ancient  arts  of  spinning  and  weav 
ing.  Spinning  and  weaving  brought  into 
the  department  of  clothing  such  abundance 
and  variety  of  material.  Wool,  the  hair  of 
several  species  of  animals,  hemp,  flax,  cot 
ton,  silk,  and  perhaps  other  articles,  were  all 
suited  to  it,  affording  garments  not  only 
adapted  to  wet  and  dry,  heat  and  cold,  but 
also  susceptible  of  high  degrees  of  orna 
mental  finish.  Exactly  w/ien,  or  where,  spin 
ning  and  weaving  originated  is  not  known. 
At  the  first  interview  of  the  Almighty  with 
Adam  and  Eve,  after  the  fall,  He  made 


"coats  of  skins,  and  clothed  them"  ( Genesis 
iii:  21). 

The  Bible  makes  no  other  allusion  to  cloth 
ing,  before  the  flood.  Soon  after  the  deluge 
Noah's  two  sons  covered  him  with  a  gar 
ment;  but  of  what  material  the  garment  was 
made  is  not  mentioned  (Genesis  ix:  23). 

Abraham  mentions  "thread"  in  such  con 
nection  asto  indicate  that  spinningand  weav 
ing  were  in  use  in  his  day  (Genesis  xiv:  23), 
and  soon  after,  reference  to  the  art  is  frequent 
ly  made.  "Linen  breeches"  are  mentioned 
(Exodus  xxviii:42),  and  it  is  said  "all  the 
women  that  were  wise-hearted  did  spin  with 
their  hands"  (Exodus  xxxv:  25),  and,  "all 
the  women  whose  heart  stirred  them  up  in 
wisdom  spun  goats'  hair"  (Exodus  xxxv:  26) . 
The  work  of  the  "weaver"  is  mentioned 
(Exodus  xxxv:  35).  In  the  book  of  Job,  a 
very  old  book,  date  not  exactly  known,  the 
"weavers'  shuttle"  is  mentioned. 

The  above  mention  of  "thread"  by  Abra 
ham  is  the  oldest  recorded  allusion  tospinning 
and  weaving;  and  it  was  made  about  two 
thousand  years  after  the  creation  of  man,  and 
now,  near  four  thousand  years  ago.  Profane 


authors  think  these  arts  originated  in  Egypt; 
and  this  is  not  contradicted, or  made  improb 
able,  by  anything  in  the  Bible;  for  the  allu 
sion  of  Abraham,  mentioned,  was  not  made 
until  after  he  had  sojourned  in  Egypt. 

The  discovery  of  the  properties  of  iron, 
and  the  making  viiron  tools,  must  have  been 
among  the  earliest  of  important  discoveries 
and  inventions.  We  can  scarcely  conceive 
the  possibility  of  making  much  of  anything 
else,  without  the  use  of  iron  tools.  Indeed, 
an  iron  hammer  must  have  been  very  much 
needed  to  make  the^Xr/  iron  hammer  with. 
A  stone  probably  served  as  a  substitute.  How 
could  the  "gopher  wood"  for  the  Ark  have 
been  gotten  out  without  an  axe?  It  seems  to 
me  an  axe,  or  a  miracle,  was  indispensable. 
Corresponding  with  the  prime  necessity  for 
iron,  we  find  at  least  one  very  early  notice 
of  it.  Tubal-Cain  was  "an  instructor  of  every 
artificer  in  brass  and  iron"  (Genesis  iv:  22). 
Tubal-Cain  was  the  seventh  in  descent  from 
Adam ;  and  his  birth  was  about  one  thousand 
years  before  the  flood.  After  the  flood,  fre 
quent  mention  is  made  of  iron,  and  instru 
ments  made  of  iron.  Thus  "instrument  of 


iron"  at  Numbers  xxxv:  16;  "bedstead  of 
iron ' '  at  Deuteronomy  iii :  1 1 ;  "  the  iron  fur 
nace"  at  Deuteronomy  iv:  20,  and  "iron 
tool"  at  Deuteronomy  xxvii:  5.  At  Deuter 
onomy  xix:  5,  very  distinct  mention  of  "the 
ax  to  cut  down  the  tree"  is  made;  and  also 
at  Deuteronomy  viii:  9,  the  promised  land 
is  described  as  "a  land  whose  stones  are  iron, 
andout  of  whosehillsthou  mayest  digbrass." 
From  the  somewhat  frequent  mention  of 
brass  in  connection  with  iron,  it  is  not  im 
probable  that  brass— perhaps  what  we  now 
call  copper — was  used  by  the  ancients  for 
some  of  the  same  purposes  as  iron. 

Transportation — the  removal  of  person  and 
goods  from  place  to  place — would  be  an  early 
objett,  if  not  a  necessity,  with  man.  By  his 
natural  powers  of  locomotion,  and  without 
much  assistance  from  discovery  and  inven 
tion,  he  could  move  himself  about  with  con 
siderable  facility;  and  even,  could  carry  small 
burthens  with  him.  But  very  soon  he  would 
wish  to  lessen  the  labor,  while  he  might,  at 
the  same  time,  extend,  and  expedite  the  busi 
ness.  For  this  objecl,wheel-carriages,and  wa 
ter-crafts — wagons  and  boats — are  the  most 


important  inventions.  The  use  of  the  wheel 
and  axle  has  been  so  long  known,  that  it  is  dif 
ficult,  without  reflection,  to  estimate  it  at  its 
truevalue.  The  oldestrecordedallusiontothe 
wheel  and  axle  is  the  mention  of  a  "chariot" 
(Genesis  xli:43).  This  was  in  Egypt,  upon 
the  occasion  of  Joseph  being  made  governor 
by  Pharaoh.  It  was  about  twenty -five  hun 
dred  years  after  the  creation  of  Adam.  That 
the  chariot  then  mentioned  was  a  wheel- 
carriage  drawn  by  animals  is  sufficiently 
evidenced  by  the  mention  of  chariot  wheels 
(Exodus  xiv:  25),  and  the  mention  of  char 
iots  in  connection  with  horses  in  the  same 
chapter,  verses  9  and  23.  So  much,  at  pres 
ent,  for  land  transportation. 

Now,  as  to  transportation  by  water,  I  have 
concluded,  without  sufficient  authority  per 
haps,  to  use  the  term  "boat"  as  a  general 
name  for  all  water-craft.  The  boat  is  indis 
pensable  to  navigation.  It  is  not  probable 
that  the  philosophical  principle  upon  which 
the  use  of  the  boat  primarily  depends — to- 
wit,  the  principle,  that  anything  will  float, 
which  cannot  sink  without  displacing  more 
than  its  own  weight  of  water— was  known, 


or  even  thought  of,  before  the  first  boats  were 
made.  The  sight  of  a  crow  standing  on  a 
piece  of  driftwood  floating  down  the  swollen 
current  of  a  creek  or  river,  might  well  enough 
suggest  the  specific  idea  to  a  savage,  that  he 
could  himself  get  upon  a  log,  or  on  two  logs 
tied  together,  and  somehow  work  his  way 
to  the  opposite  shore  of  the  same  stream. 
Such  a  suggestion,  so  taken,  would  be  the 
birth  of  navigation;  and  such,  not  improba 
bly,  it  really  was.  The  leading  idea  was  thus 
caught ;  and  whatever  came  afterwards,  were 
but  improvements  upon,  and  auxiliaries  to,  it. 

As  man  is  a  land  animal,  it  might  be  ex- 
peeled  he  would  learn  to  travel  by  land  some 
what  earlier  than  he  would  by  water.  Still 
the  crossing  of  streams,  somewhat  too  deep 
for  wading,  would  be  an  early  necessity  with 
him.  If  we  pass  by  the  Ark,  which  may  be 
regarded  as  belonging  rather  to  the  miracu 
lous  than  to  human  invention,  the  first  notice 
we  have  of  water-craft  is  the  mention  of 
"ships"  by  Jacob  (Genesis  xlix:  13).  It  is  not 
till  we  reach  the  book  of  Isaiah  that  we  meet 
with  the  mention  of  "oars"  and  "sails." 

As  man'sy^W — his  first  necessity — was  to 


be  derived  from  the  vegetation  of  the  earth, 
it  was  natural  that  his  first  care  should  be 
directed  to  the  assistance  of  that  vegetation. 
And  accordingly  we  find  that,  even  before 
the  fall,  the  man  was  put  into  the  garden  of 
Eden"to  dress  it,  and  to  keep  it."  And  when 
afterwards,  in  consequence  of  the  first  trans 
gression,  labor  was  imposed  on  the  race,  as  a 
penalty— -a  curse— we  find  the  first  born  man— 
the  first  heir  of  the  curse— was  "a  tiller  of 
the  ground."  This  was  the  beginning  of  agri 
culture;  and  although,  both  in  point  of  time, 
and  of  importance,  it  stands  at  the  head  of 
all  branches  of  human  industry,  it  has  de 
rived  less  direcl:  advantage  from  Discovery 
and  Invention,  than  almost  any  other.  The 
plow,  of  very  early  origin;  and  reaping,  and 
threshing,  machines,  of  modern  invention 
are,  at  this  day,  the  principal  improvements 
in  agriculture.  And  even  the  oldest  of  these, 
the  plow,  could  not  have  been  conceived  of, 
until  aprecedent  conception  hadbeen  caught, 
and  put  into  practice — I  mean  the  concep 
tion,  or  idea,  of  substituting  other  forces  in 
nature,for  man's  own  muscular  power.  These 
other  forces,  as  now  used,  are  principally,  the 


strength  of  animals,  and  the  power  of  the 
wind,  of  running  streams,  and  of  steam. 

Climbing  upon  the  back  of  an  animal,  and 
making  it  carry  us,  might  not  occur  very 
readily.  I  think  the  back  of  the  camel  would 
never  have  suggested  it.  It  was,  however,  a 
matter  of  vast  importance.  The  earliest  in 
stance  of  it  mentioned,  is  when  "Abraham 
rose  up  early  in  the  morning,  and  saddled  his 
ass"  (Genesis  xxii:  3),  preparatory  to  sacri 
ficing  Isaac  as  a  burnt-offering;  but  the  allu 
sion  to  the  saddle  indicates  that  riding  had 
been  in  use  some  time;  for  it  is  quite  prob 
able  they  rode  bare-backed  awhile,  at  least, 
before  they  invented  saddles. 

The  idea,  being  once  conceived,  of  riding 
one  species  of  animals,  would  soon  be  ex 
tended  to  others.  Accordingly  we  find  that 
when  the  servant  of  Abraham  went  in  search 
of  a  wife  for  Isaac,  he  took  ten  camels  with 
him;  and,on  his  return  trip,  "Rebekah  arose, 
and  her  damsels,  and  they  rode  upon  the 
camels,  and  followed  the  man"  (Genesis 
xxiv :  6 1 ) . 

The  horse,  too,  as  a  riding  animal,  is  men 
tioned  early.  The  Red  Sea  being  safely  passed, 


Moses  and  the  children  of  Israel  sang  to  the 
Lord  "the  horse  and  his  rider  hath  he  thrown 
into  the  sea ' '  ( Exodus  xv :  i ) . 

Seeing  that  animals  could  bear  man  upon 
their  backs,  it  would  soon  occur  that  they 
could  also  bear  other  burthens.  Accordingly 
we  find  that  Joseph's  brethren,  on  their  first 
visit  to  Egypt,  "laded  their  asses  with  the 
corn, and  departed  thence' '  (Genesis  xlii:  26) . 

Also  it  would  occur  that  animals  could  be 
made  to  draw  burthens  after  them,  as  well 
as  to  bear  them  upon  their  backs;  and  hence 
plows  and  chariots  came  into  use  early  enough 
to  be  often  mentioned  in  the  books  of  Moses 
(Deuteronomy  xxii:  10;  Genesis  xli:  43; 
xlvi:  29;  Exodus  xiv:  25). 

Of  all  the  forces  of  nature,  I  should  think 
the  wind  contains  the  largest  amount  of  mo 
tive  power — that  is,  power  to  move  things. 
Take  any  given  space  of  the  earth's  surface — 
for  instance,  Illinois;  and  all  the  power  ex 
erted  by  all  the  men,  and  beasts,  and  running- 
water,  and  steam,  over  and  upon  it,  shall  not 
equal  the  one  hundredth  part  of  what  is  ex 
erted  by  the  blowing  of  the  wind  over  and 
upon  the  same  space.  And  yet  it  has  not,  so 


far  in  the  world's  history,  become  propor- 
tionably  valuable  as  a  motive  power.  It  is  ap 
plied  extensively,  and  advantageously, to  sail- 
vessels  in  navigation.  Add  to  this  a  few  wind 
mills,  and  pumps,  and  you  have  about  all. 
That,  as  yet,  no  very  successful  mode  of  con 
trolling,  and  directing  the  wind,  has  been  dis 
covered;  and  that,  naturally,  it  moves  by  fits 
and  starts — now  so  gently  as  to  scarcely  stir  a 
leaf,  and  now  so  roughly  as  to  level  a  forest — 
doubtless  have  been  the  insurmountable  dif 
ficulties.  As  yet,  the  wind  is  an  untamed,  and 
unharnessed  force;  and  quite  possibly  one  of 
the  greatest  discoveries  hereafter  to  be  made, 
will  be  the  taming,  and  harnessing  of  it.  That 
the  difficulties  of  controlling  this  power  are 
very  great  is  quite  evident  by  the  fadt  that  they 
have  already  been  perceived,  and  struggled 
with  more  than  three  thousand  years;  for 
that  power  was  applied  to  sail-vessels,  at  least 
as  early  as  the  time  of  the  prophet  Isaiah. 

In  speaking  of  running  streams,  as  a  motive 
power,  I  mean  its  application  to  mills  and 
other  machinery  by  means  of  the  "water 
wheel" — a  thing  now  well  known,  and  ex 
tensively  used;  but,  of  which,  no  mention  is 


made  in  the  Bible,  though  it  is  thought  to 
have  been  in  use  among  the  Romans.  (Am. 
Ency.-Mill),  the  language  of  the  Saviour 
"Two  women  shall  be  grinding  at  the  mill, 
etc. "indicates  that, even  in  the  populous  city 
of  Jerusalem,  at  that  day,  mills  were  oper 
ated  by  hand— having,  as  yet  had  no  other 
than  human  power  applied  to  them. 

The  advantageous  use  of  Steam-power  is, 
unquestionably,  a  modern  discovery .  And  yet, 
as  much  as  two  thousand  years  ago  the  power 
of  steam  was  not  only  observed,  but  an  in 
genious  toy  was  actually  made  and  put  in 
motion  by  it,  at  Alexandria  in  Egypt.  What 
appears  strange  is,  that  neither  the  inventor 
of  the  toy,  nor  any  one  else,  for  so  long  a 
time  afterwards,  should  perceive  that  steam 
would  move  w^/w/ machinery  as  well  as  a  toy. 


OF  THIS  BOOK  250  COPIES  WERE 
PRINTED  ON  FABRIANO  ITALIAN 
HAND -MADE  PAPER  AND  IOOO 
COPIES  ON  AMERICAN  DRAWING 
PAPER.  THE  FRONTISPIECE  IS  BY 
RAY  F.  COYLE.  PRINTED  BY  THE 
BLAIR-MURDOCK  COMPANY,  SAN 
FRANCISCO,  UNDER  THE  DIREC 
TION  OF  JOHN  HENRY  NASH,  IN 
THE  MONTH  OF  OCTOBER,  1915 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


. 


'« 


MOV  13  1354  LU 


D  LD 

DEC  11 '64-7  P 

)  1979 


LD  21-100m-lI,'49(B7146sl6)476 


YC  58166 


314598 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


